13 BLUES FOR THIRTEEN MOONS

At last, a band breaks the mold by re-introducing some real viciousness and spite to their post-rock suspendophonics. A Silver Mt. Zion seem like one of the big names in this smokey area of music and that might be down to the way they shift shapes between albums. ASMZ's previous work has had a gentility to it that has now been subverted - where once their song titles did the preaching and implied their punk stance, 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons models itself on the aesthetic and their singer sloganeers unashamedly.

That's not good news for you if you're a rock centrist because this album promises extremism both in politik and in form - ASMZ run free, letting their songs spill over in length, delighting in repetition and chants, not questioning the amount of fuzz and tension in the guitar tones, unhurried and unconcerned with pruning or regimenting their music. Still it's this meander that sets their music apart from that of the indie-punk kid legion. They also understand that rawness in spirit and in technique don't have to translate into aggression or harshness and so a lot of the music here soothes (or insinuates itself into) the senses.

Aside from the opening composition-in-feedback, every song on Thirteen Moons is full of Efram's riot-calling voice (not quite Jello Biafra, not quite that guy from the Pogues, but possessing qualities of both) which can be divisive and has no doubt damaged the album's rating on this very site more than it should have done. It's certainly an indulgence but fiery, unpolished music demands a singer with those same traits, and because of these happy imperfections, when you've listened to the album in its entirety you won't feel like you've been eating plastic - it's a reviewing standby, but ASMZ's music is strongly _organic_. =P

My advice to people who wish for the return of legitimate anger and concern to music, for people who are sick of the recording studio being every band's frontman and for people who can keep their eyes closed for an hour without falling asleep: go get this one.